The disciples of the crystal ball
It is undisputed that people in uncertain times look for orientation and meaning in life. But the fact that they are supposed to look for this in the communication of brands shows that certain marketers and advertisers no longer understand their own business.
After any event of major significance, it never takes long for certain experts to proclaim the great change. These prophecies are usually so absurd that statements by a traveling circus fortune teller seem more serious. This is also the case now with the Corona crisis: the babble about the future, how marketing and advertising will once again revolutionize themselves, is booming.
Feverish fantasies instead of facts
The myth of brand purpose is currently particularly popular. The belief that a brand must have a higher purpose that goes beyond commercial interest. Brands must improve the world, and this must also be reflected in marketing and advertising. We got our first taste of this shortly after the outbreak of the Corona crisis: companies sent out emails saying that they were standing by us in these difficult times. Your brand, your psychologist. Next came commercials and billboards. Even online, you encounter the same mindless message everywhere: we are in difficult times that we will get through together. Your brand, your life partner. What this had to do with what the advertising companies were offering remains a mystery.
Such theories are fueled by marketers and advertisers who are out of touch with reality and would rather create meaning than sell products. There is nothing wrong with creating meaning, but those involved should look up the definition of marketing and advertising in the Duden dictionary. Sinnstiftung is not there, not even as a synonym. The movement was triggered by Kevin Robert's "Lovemarks", Simon Sinek's "Start with Why" and Jim Stengel's "Grow", among others. The airy theses were successful insofar as marketers and advertisers uncritically adopted them - and still do today. In doing so, they regularly overestimate the emotional connection and importance of brands in people's lives and ignore how people actually behave towards brands - the majority being quite indifferent.
In the future everything remains the same
Yet there are voices that calmly present fact-based insights to improve the effectiveness of marketing and advertising. If you want a helpful overview, take a look at "How not to Plan" by Les Binet and Sarah Carter and "How Brands Grow" by Byron Sharp. As opposed to fevered fantasies, these works provide a helpful body of knowledge to help agencies in their core business of incubating and implementing original marketing and advertising ideas. After all, as a company, you primarily hire an agency to use its creativity to solve problems that you are unable to solve yourself. But as long as marketers and advertisers idolize constant change like screaming teenagers idolize their pop idols, the babble of the future will continue to boom. In the meantime, the term "new normality" is already circulating. It shouldn't be long before the next prognosis-hungry experts announce another fundamental change. If I miss the revolution and it really arrives this time, I would be grateful for a call on 079 262 12 89.
Parvez Sheik Fareed is co-owner and creative director of the PAM Advertising agency. This column first appeared in the print edition of Werbewoche 6/7 2020.
